by Mike Kraus
“What if we backtrack and go back around?” Dr. Evans chimed in. “We’re only a few miles in here and we could go back, divert straight east, cross the Ohio River and then start heading northeast again after that.”
Rick nodded slowly. “All right, then. We’ll turn around and head around this mess. Better safe than sorry. Are you sure we’ll be able to get across the river, though?”
“I don’t see why not.”
As Rick turned around and headed back the way they came, he was glad to see the fires receding into the distance. Dealing with the wind, rain, cold and even people was child’s play compared to dealing with a fire as big and as menacing as the one sweeping across the fields and forests. He hoped it would eventually die out but there was no telling where or when that would happen—if it happened at all.
Chapter 6
Blacksburg, VA
Dianne sat near the back door of the walk-in clinic for a few more minutes as she listened and occasionally leaned up to peek out the window. With the two men prowling around behind the strip mall she didn’t want to take any chances on making sounds that might lead them to her. The more she thought about how she could get away, though, the more she realized that she would—at some point—have to get to the truck and take off. That amount of noise would certainly draw their attention, but there was nothing else that could be done.
How am I supposed to get away, though? Dianne thought back to her inspection of the map as she tried to remember how to get to the LTAC facility from where she was. With nothing of worth inside the walk-in clinic it was clearly time for her to move on to the LTAC. Getting away would undoubtedly prove problematic. With the two men nearby she could either stand her ground and fight them—perhaps overpowering one before the other realized what was going on—or she could wait for the opportune moment to flee and hope that they couldn’t follow her or get a lucky shot off before she got away.
Already angered by Jason’s injury caused by the gang, Dianne seriously considered ambushing the two men to both keep them from following her and to exact a measure of vengeance for Jason’s injury, Tina’s kidnapping and whatever other horrors the two men and their compatriots had inflicted on other people. While Dianne wasn’t dissuaded by the thought of killing the two men she did have to weigh what it could potentially mean for Jason.
If she spent a lot of time on a plan that wasn’t successful—or even if it was—then that would be less time that she could devote to finding the medication that Jason so desperately needed. After wrestling with the decision for a few minutes Dianne gave up on the idea of trying to take the men out and instead began moving back towards the entrance to the clinic. Inside the front lobby she stared out into the parking lot, looking for any signs of the men that were searching for her. They were likely still searching the buildings behind the strip mall, though as she caught sight of her truck across the street she groaned and wished she had parked it in a slightly less obvious spot.
Dianne ran out of the entrance to the clinic, jumping over large piles of glass as she tried to minimize the noise she was creating. She stopped halfway through the parking lot, pushing herself down between the remnants of two cars as she paused again to watch and listen for the men. The noise she made going out the front door didn’t seem to attract their attention so she moved forward again, keeping as low to the ground as possible and sticking close to objects she could use for cover in case she started taking fire.
After glancing both ways down the street and seeing nothing, Dianne gave up on her stealthy tactics and ran full-tilt across the road. She shrugged off her backpack halfway to the truck and ran around to the driver’s side. She tossed her pack onto the passenger seat and hopped in, closing the door as softly as possible.
“So far so good…” Dianne whispered to herself as she inserted the key into the ignition. She hesitated before turning it, double checking that there was a round in the chamber of her pistol before proceeding.
When the engine coughed to life Dianne could swear that it was louder than it had ever been before in all the years they had owned it. With the windows rolled down Dianne could hear the echo of the engine carry across the streets and parking lots, bouncing off the buildings and the pavement as it seemingly called out for everyone in the area to come investigate the source of the sound. Certain the pair of men had heard the truck, Dianne didn’t waste any time getting moving. She threw it into gear and tore forward down the street, passing by the clinic and the back street where the men had been walking as she flicked on the headlights to keep from running into any obstacles along her way.
The bright beams caught the reflection of pale skin and startled eyes as one of the men ran out from a building to see where the noise was coming from. He nearly fell into the street as he stopped abruptly, staring dumbfounded at the truck as he tried to make sense of what was going on. Seizing upon an opportunity Dianne held fast to the steering wheel with her right hand while she swung open the driver’s side door with her left, bracing it with her left leg and arm. She jerked the steering wheel to the left and pushed outward on the door with her leg and arm, feeling a loud thud as it struck the man who was standing on the pavement.
Dianne pulled the door closed and pulled the truck back to the right as the man cried out in pain, falling to the ground and tumbling forward from the force of the collision. His partner emerged from a building on the opposite side of the street a second later. He glanced at his fallen cohort before he looked up at the truck and started firing at it with his pistol. Fortunately for Dianne, though, she was far enough down the road and his aim was bad enough that he had no chance of hitting her.
***
“My arm!” The man lying on the ground screamed as his partner continued firing round after round at the truck. He knew there was little chance of hitting the vehicle or the passenger inside but he felt obligated to try anyway. Once the truck was out of sight he ran over to the man on the ground and knelt down next to him.
“You okay?”
The man on the ground spat at the one standing above him, then cried out in pain as the movement caused a wave of pain to travel from his shoulder down to his wrist. “Do I look okay? What the hell’s wrong with you?! Help me up!”
The uninjured man helped the one on the ground to his feet, then the injured man took off his jacket to see the extent of his injuries. He could still move his fingers and had some limited movement, but whenever anything below his left shoulder moved around he felt pain wash over him.
“Did she break it?”
“Maybe.” The injured man tried to form a fist but gave up as the agony made tears well up in his eyes. “Let’s just get in the car and go after her.”
“What was she doing, anyway? She was close by.”
“I don’t know. I don’t care, either.” The injured man growled. “But that bitch is going to pay.”
Chapter 7
ISS-2, International Space Station 2
Three Hours After the Event
“Houston? Houston, can you hear us? Jacksonville? Can anyone hear us?”
“Anything?”
Ted Wilkins shakes his head. “Nothing. It’s like the satellite relay system is gone.”
Jackie Frey looks back out the window as she watches the surface of the earth. “The fires are spreading. There’s smoke all across the panhandle now.”
“What could be going on? We had comms until, what? Three hours ago?”
Jackie nods. “I think so.”
“Got anything yet?” Commander Devin Palmer drifts into the room, reaching out and grabbing onto a handhold to stop his forward momentum.
“Nothing yet. I think something’s wrong with the TDRS. I’m getting nothing from any of the satellites. No static, no keepalive signal, no nothing. It’s like they’re just… gone.”
“I was able to get a visual lock on four of the relay satellites and seven others in higher orbits. They all appear dead, though.”
“Dead?”
“They’re tumbling. Orbits are destabilizing. Some’ll burn up in a few days. Probably a few weeks for the others I saw.”
Ted’s eyes widen as he realizes what Devin is saying. “Did someone send them kill commands?”
Commander Palmer shrugs. “No clue.” He looks over in the corner of the room. “Did you try the emergency radio bands?”
Jackie nods, still looking out the window. “For an hour straight. No response. There’s plenty of static out there but nobody’s transmitting on anything that we can pick up.”
Commander Palmer gently pushes himself toward the window and whistles at the sight of the southeastern United States below. “Look at that smoke out in the gulf. Are those rigs that are burning?”
Jackie nods again. “I think so.”
“Holy hellfire. What’s going on down there?”
“Uh… Commander Palmer? You want to come take a look at this?” Ted wipes his arm across his brow, his nervousness and trepidation growing by the second.
“What’s going on?”
Ted points to an image on the screen of the laptop he’s working at. “I just saw a flicker in the O2 tank sensors. They were showing empty for a split second, then they were back. Then there was a surge in the main computer controls, like it was working overtime for a minute before going back to normal.”
“Hm.” Commander Palmer pulls himself in front of the computer as Ted drifts to the side. “You run a diagnostic?”
“Not yet. This happened just now, when you two were talking.”
Commander Palmer taps on the keyboard, paging through the software that shows readouts on all of the systems running on the space station. At first glance everything appears normal, at least until Palmer starts digging deeper into the systems. Strange fluctuations in pressurized tanks, voltage changes in key electrical systems and seemingly random spikes appear in the main computer system.
Twice the size of the ISS, the ISS-2 has been online and manned for six months and has already served as host to several civilian and politician visits and countless scientific experiments. The original ISS is still in orbit, though it is unmanned and offline, with plans to decommission it in the works. Only three astronauts—all American—are onboard the ISS-2, though five more were scheduled to arrive from Venezuela, Russia and China within the next four to six weeks. Being slightly understaffed on the ISS-2 has not proven to be a problem for the three astronauts as they have had many automated and upgraded systems at their disposal, making the ISS’s systems look primitive in comparison.
“I don’t understand what’s going on.” Commander Palmer turns back to look out the window. “But it’s got to be related to that. Maybe war?”
“It doesn’t look like it.” Jackie shakes her head. “There are fires across the globe. Most of the major cities look like something bad is happening. It seems to be country-agnostic.”
“Terrorist attacks?”
Jackie shrugs. “I don’t see how. Maybe? But how could it be coordinated world-wide?”
Palmer is about to respond when the lights in the room flicker for a few seconds before shutting off entirely. The whine of a compressor in some distant part of the space station slowly dies off, leaving the room shrouded in darkness and silence.
“What the hell? Where are the emergency lights?” Using the bit of light coming from outside the station Palmer makes his way to a small cabinet on the wall. He pulls out a pair of flashlights, throwing one of the lights to Ted while motioning to Jackie to follow him. “Ted, get on the computer and see what’s going on. Jackie, I need you with me. Let’s see if we can get some lights on in here.”
“Computer’s dead, Commander.” Ted slaps at the keys and pushes the power button for the monitor on and off but nothing happens.
“Merde.” Palmer curses under his breath. “Okay, with system power offline we need to check the breakers and relays first. Ted, you head down and check those. Jackie, get your eyes on the reactor and see if there’s a problem with it. I’ll go up to control and see if anything is showing up there. Use the pipes to communicate.”
“On it.” Ted and Jackie pull themselves through a tube in the ‘floor’ of the room, heading to the panels that house the main power breakers for the space station. Commander Palmer, meanwhile, proceeds up into the control room. He pulls a flexible tube close to his face and speaks into it.
“Got anything down there?”
A hollow, tinny voice echoes back through the tube. “Give us just a second. We’re checking the last row of them now.” There is silence for a few more seconds and Ted’s voice comes through again. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No problems, no issues, no nothing.”
Palmer glances across the instrument panels, toggling switches as he flips through a thick notebook filled with emergency checklists. “I’m getting nothing from up here, either.”
“Commander?” Jackie’s voice is distant, but filled with stress and alarm. “I think I found the problem.”
Chapter 8
Somewhere Near the Indiana/Kentucky State Border
“Seriously? Again? What is that, the third one that’s been down?”
“There was the one that was still standing back at the start.”
“Technically standing doesn’t really count for our purposes. I wouldn’t trust that thing to hold up a housefly.”
“Do we keep going?”
“What other choice do we have? They can’t all be out. I hope.”
Rick sighed, and waved dramatically at the car. “After you.” Jane grumbled as she climbed into the back seat, then Rick and Dr. Evans got in. Rick started the car, put it into gear and backed away from the remnants of the bridge that once stretched across the Ohio River, linking the west and east sides together.
They had been following the river’s course for over an hour, starting down near Louisville and working their way north along the western bank. Avoiding major cities like Louisville was a priority for them given the unpredictable shifts in the ground in the area and they had hoped to use a smaller bridge in between Louisville and Cincinnati to cross over the water.
Unfortunately, though, the earthquakes that had caused them to avoid the larger cities had caused other, more urgent problems as well. They had started just outside Louisville, looking for a bridge to cross the river. The first one they saw was an older, two-lane bridge that had only a simple guardrail on both sides. They were about to cross the bridge when Jane yelled at Rick to stop, having noticed something wrong just as they were about to cross over the threshold of the bridge.
The trio had stopped, gotten out and walked to the bridge to find that the bridge was splintered and cracked with long fissures running on the road’s surface as well as on the support beams that held it up. With collapsed buildings visible in the distance at the edge of Louisville, they all agreed that they should continue north and try to find a crossing that looked like it wouldn’t plummet into the water if they drove across.
An hour and two collapsed bridges later and Rick was beginning to wish they had risked the first crossing. Evidence of intense tectonic activity dotted the area, affecting both man-made structures and the natural landscape. Structures never designed to be subjected to earthquakes had either completely collapsed or were a strong gust of wind away from falling into a heap. Clusters of trees and sections of open fields were completely gone in some places, replaced only by dark crevices and holes in the ground. The two bridges the group came across were likewise destroyed with small pieces of cement and steel sticking out of the water like gravestones.
Rick crossed his hands on the top of the steering wheel and rested his chin on them as they sat in front of where the third bridge once stood, looking out across the water. “It’s so close. So. Close.”
“We could sw—no, wait. Duh.” Jane rolled her eyes at herself. “Can’t exactly take the car across the water even if we did swim, could we?”
Rick blinked a few times as he crinkled his nose. “What if we could, though?”
“This car is a wonder of modern technology, Rick, but it can’t fly.” Dr. Evans replied.
“Not fly. But float.”
Jane laughed. “Is this James Bond’s car or something?”
“No, no; listen, just hear me out.” Rick lifted his head and zoomed out on the map on the center console. “Back when we were outside Louisville, did either of you take a look down the river toward the city?”
Dr. Evans and Jane looked at each other, shrugged, shook their heads and replied in unison. “Not really.”
Rick began tapping his fingers against the steering wheel as the threads of a plan began to slowly weave themselves into a tapestry in his mind. “The Ohio River sees—or saw, at least—a lot of barge traffic. Goods going up and down the river. I remember looking down the river toward the city and seeing a bunch of barges and tugboats down there.”
“What’s that got to do with us?”
Rick put the car into reverse, glancing nervously at the fading sun. “We need to find a barge or a big boat or something on the river. If we do, we can bring it to shore, load the car on board, get the barge across and we’re home free.” Rick stepped on the accelerator, pressing the three of them into their seats as the car jumped forward.
Jane looked out the back window. “Not to disparage your plan or anything, but shouldn’t we be going back towards Louisville if you want to get a boat?”
Rick shook his head. “Nope. We keep pressing forward and head north. If we’re lucky we’ll find an intact bridge. If not, then hopefully we’ll find a barge adrift or run aground or something.”
“I don’t particularly like the sound of this plan, Rick.” Dr. Evans clung to the handholds inside the car as it sped along.
Rick shrugged. “It’s the same plan, more or less. The bridge would be best, but if not… well, we have a backup plan.”
***
Another hour and a half’s worth of driving brought with it the discovery of two more bridges across the river—one for road traffic and one for trains—that had been completely destroyed. No boats or barges or watercraft of any kind had been spotted and the trio’s morale, while temporarily boosted by Rick’s new plan, was steadily dropping. The sky was a mixture of dark red, orange and purple with the sun sitting low over the horizon when Jane shouted, startling Dr. Evans and nearly causing Rick to swerve off the road. “There!” She pointed out to the right at the river and Rick slowed down.